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Published on: June 2, 2022
Premedication and Induction of Anaesthesia in paediatric patients
1Department of Paediatric Anaesthesia, Seth GS Medical College and KEM Hospital, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India.
Insights
Minimizing preoperative anxiety in children is crucial for better surgical outcomes. This review covers pharmacological and non-pharmacological methods for managing pediatric anxiety and discusses anesthetic induction techniques.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Anesthesiology
- Child Psychology
Background:
- Perioperative anxiety in children is linked to adverse outcomes like emergence delirium and behavioral changes.
- Child's age and temperament are key predictors of preoperative anxiety.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review pharmacological and non-pharmacological methods for minimizing preoperative anxiety in pediatric patients.
- To discuss anesthetic induction techniques for infants and children undergoing surgery.
Main Methods:
- A narrative review of the MEDLINE database was conducted.
- Keywords included preoperative anxiety, child, premedication, pediatric, and anesthetic induction.
- Search was limited to English articles without date restrictions.
Main Results:
- Identified predictors of preoperative anxiety include age and temperament.
- Details pharmacological and non-pharmacological anxiety reduction strategies.
- Discusses inhalational, intravenous, and rapid sequence induction in children.
Conclusions:
- Individualized anesthetic plans are essential, especially for children with behavioral disorders or aspiration risk.
- Effective management of preoperative anxiety can improve pediatric surgical outcomes.
Abstract:
Perioperative anxiety has been associated with adverse clinical outcomes such as emergence delirium, increased analgesic requirements and negative postoperative behavioural changes such as sleep disturbance, separation anxiety, eating problems and new-onset enuresis. Predictors of preoperative anxiety have been identified, and these include, among other factors, the age and temperament of the child. Any plan for anaesthetic induction in a child must take into account these factors. The anaesthetic plan must be individualised for special situations, for example, the child with behavioural disorder or at risk of aspiration. This article details the pharmacological and nonpharmacological methods to minimise preoperative anxiety and the techniques of anaesthetic induction in infants and children undergoing surgery. The benefits and limitations of inhalational and intravenous induction and the current status of rapid sequence induction in children are discussed. MEDLINE database was searched for this narrative review using the keywords including preoperative anxiety, child, premedication, paediatric and anaesthetic induction. Search was restricted to articles in English, but without any publication date restrictions.
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